San Diego Comic-Con 2010: The Community Peacock Players

This post needs a little set-up so hang in with me. I'll give you a moment to scroll down to the pics and then back up here to get the story behind them....go on, I'll wait....

****musical interlude***

So, now for the story behind the pics! I belong to a community on the NBC website called "Fan-It." It's a little program where you earn points for watching videos clips, participating in message board discussions, play games, all sorts of thing. Members use their points to get merchandise, online "badges" and sweepstakes entries. As San Diego Comic-Con was drawing near, NBC announced a few related sweepstakes. One was for an upcoming television series called "The Event" starring the adorable Jason Ritter and executive produced by Evan Katz of "24" fame.

Fan-It members could spend 5 of their points for 1 entry into the sweeps. The winner would get 2 V.I.P. seats at the panel for The Event in San Diego. During the panel NBC would be showing the pilot episode and the cast and crew would be on hand to answer questions.

I had 5000 points burning a hole in my pocket so I spent 500 on 100 entries into the sweepstakes. It wasn't until we were already in San Diego that I got the e-mail telling me that I had won the sweepstakes. Hooray! Oh wait, but the panel was scheduled for 11:00 on Saturday, the exact same time that I would be on line for a chance to get into an autograph signing for the cast of my favorite current NBC show, "Community!" How could I be on line AND in a panel? Clearly, I couldn't, so I explained my situation to the NBC employee, Guy, and politely declined. Within 5 minutes I had changed my mind. WHAT THE HECK WAS I THINKING!?!?!? I was giving up a sure thing for a "chance," who would do that? So I immediately wrote Guy again asking if he could possibly disregard my previous e-mail. In his response Guy said that he'd sweeten my deal with an invitation to an NBC party on Friday night. A party and V.I.P. seats at a panel, heck yeah!

So....fast forward to Friday. Superfro escorts me to the hotel that is hosting the party, the Omni. He has agreed to wander the mean streets of the Gaslamp district while I was at the party. On the 6th floor rooftop my name is checked by a cute NBC employee who asks if I've brought a guest. I immediately ask her to give me a moment and quickly called Superfro to come join me.

The scene was a little bizarre. We were moderately under dressed and clearly out of place.

There was a DJ and the music was a little loud but the view was great, that's the Hilton with the Scott Pilgrim design there in the background. I talked a little bit to Guy and he had the NBC photographers take our pictures near a promotional stand-up for "The Event" and also introduced me to the other Fan-It winner who had won the exact same sweepstakes but for another show called "The Cape" and the photographer took more pics of us posing by a neon NBC logo. The whole thing was a little weird and for a while Superfro and I just stood at a tall table looking around and wondering if we should leave.

Then this happened.

Behind Superfro I saw a pretty woman. Then in my head I saw her surrounded by my television and I realized that it was Gillian Jacobs, who plays Britta on "Community." I gave her a few minutes before I attacked her and asked for a pic. She was entirely gracious and I was borderline blubbering as I told her about winning the party invitation as part of an NBC sweepstakes.

Then I spotted someone else, Summer Glau, who I knew from "Firefly" and who is starring in "The Cape."

Summer smiled for the picture but wasn't interested in chit chatting so I quickly moved away. It was then that Guy approached me to reveal what he was not allowed to tell me in his e-mail, that he invited me to the party knowing that much of the cast of "Community" would be in attendance. Oh my stars and garters! I'm sure the look on my face said wonders about my excitment.

The next person I saw was James Frain who I love from his role on Showtime's "The Tudors" but he's also currently on "True Blood" and will also be on "The Cape." I was so star stuck that I forgot to tell him how much I loved him on "The Tudors" but not so much to mention how overwhelming the whole situation was and that I'm "just a girl from Iowa!" to which James replied, "Look, sometime we're all just a girl from Iowa!"

And then shit started getting a little wild. We saw Parvesh Cheena from the upcoming show "Outsourced" and Keith David and David Lyons from "The Cape."

Then in rapid succession we saw "Community"s Donald Glover (Troy), Danny Pudi (Abed) and creator Dan Harmon. All of them were really friendly.

At that point we knew our time was running out, we had tickets to a Patton Oswalt show 10 blocks away at the House of Blues and our friend Matt was waiting patiently for us outside. We needed to skeddadle. On our way out we got to meet Yvette Nicole Brown  who plays Shirley on "Community" who took it upon herself to introduce me to Zachary Levi of "Chuck."

Two days later Superfro and I went over to the Hilton Bayfront for lunch. We had already eaten their once but the food and service were good enough that it was worth a second visit. The hostess led us to a corner table and I slid into the booth on one side, looking around. The table next to us was empty but the table next to that....Oh. My. Fricking. Gawsh. Lo and behold, sharing a plate of bleu cheese chips were Donald Glover, Alison Brie and Joel McHale from "Community". I wasn't very subtle with my recognition so Joel McHale waved and we made short  conversation. Superfro asked if we could get a picture with them before they left. Joel said "I'll take a picture with you, but not with her!" and pointed at me. Every the funny-man, that guy.

So, that's the story of how we met (most of) the cast of "Community" at the San Diego Comic-Con, in two entirely separate and fortunate events. It sorta makes all the crazy crowds and expensive hotel rooms totally worth it.

Related posts: Entertainment Geekly    Mixing & Simmering   Preamble Ramble